CRANDALL, Texas — With a triple-digit lead atop the American Sprint Car Series National Tour standings, Seth Bergman has admittedly been playing the consistency game in the closing stages of the season.
But there’s no better way to build a points lead than to win, and he did just that on Friday night at RPM Speedway.
“I had hoped for it,” Bergman said after his sixth National Tour triumph of the year. “I set really high standards personally. You rattle off some stats there and it sounds great, but I think what propels us to those is that we take the losses hard. We want to win and we want to be competitive every night.”
The win comes one week after a disappointing weekend at Riverside Int’l Speedway – where the No. 23 team finished 11th on Friday and missed the feature on Saturday – making their rebound in Crandall all the more important.
“For us at West Memphis, it wasn’t great,” Bergman said. “We didn’t have a good run and we worked hard this week. Coming into this weekend, I was like ‘man, if I could just go win a couple races here, it’s going to really help us come down the stretch here.”
Bergman began the feature from the inside of row two, with the front row occupied by his championship rival Sam Hafertepe Jr. alongside 14-year-old Carson Bolden, who was making his first start in a 360 sprint car.
Hafertepe’s experience prevailed over Bolden’s youth on the initial start, as the No. 15h jumped out to the early lead while Bolden fell back to fourth by the end of Lap 1 behind Bergman and Blake Hahn. The battle between the two dominant cars all season commenced immediately, with Bergman briefly making it side-by-side for the lead before slipping up on Hafertepe’s inside exiting Turn 4 and relinquishing the top spot.
The race was interrupted for the first time when Tyler Harris found the concrete in Turn 1. Less than a lap after action resumed, the yellow flew again after Andrew Deal went around while battling with Brenham Crouch in Turn 3 and collected Landon Britt and Bradley Fezard.
On the next restart, Bergman looked to the outside to try and get around Hafertepe down the backstretch before crossing him over exiting Turn 4 and diving to Hafertepe’s inside in Turn 1, but Hafertepe once again emerged with the lead. Before Bergman could set up another move, Brekton Crouch got upside down in Turn 4 to pause the field once more.
A handful of laps after holding the lead on the restart, Hafertepe’s streak of misfortune in recent weeks continued when engine issues brought his night to a fiery end at the top of Turn 2.
“I felt like it was shaping up to be one hell of a race between [Hafertepe] and I in traffic,” Bergman said. “Looked like he had some engine problems, so that’s a bummer. Gave us the lead and then really, from there, I just kind of set a mediocre pace and just stayed out of trouble.”
The caution for Hafertepe was the final stoppage of the 30-lap feature, which meant that one more solid restart was all Bergman needed to drive away to the checkered flag for the first time since Aug. 23 at Big Sky Speedway.
The win along with Hafertepe’s DNF puts Bergman up by 187 points with five races remaining.
“This has been the most I’ve won in any one year on the National Tour, tonight’s six,” Bergman said. “Really happy to be able to bounce back and come back and get a win, gives us great momentum, it’s how we want to start this home stretch. Probably couldn’t find a happier guy in the pit area.”
Hank Davis looked to be in for a rough night after a seventh-place heat race finish sent him to the Last Chance Showdown, but after grabbing a transfer spot he put forth a remarkable effort, driving from 18th to second.
“We were just off early, just missed it,” Davis said. “Part of it, everyone does it. That was the first B-Feature we’ve run all year. I’m super proud of these guys. I don’t wish anything bad on anyone, but I would have liked to have gotten up there to Sam and just finished with him, just keep him close. Kind of got to take them how you can get them, and that’s a lot of points gained. Kind of the big picture here, I know we can’t win the drivers’ championship, but I still want to win the Owners for Wayne.”
The third spot went to Brady Baker, who collected his third podium of the year while running a part-time schedule.
“It feels amazing, just wish I could race these guys more, it would make me a lot better,” Baker said. “That was a good race, started out a little tight, but about halfway through it just started coming and coming. I was able to rip the bottom, I don’t know if anybody else could hit it like I could, but we were ripping.”
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 23-Seth Bergman[3]; 2. 2C-Hank Davis[18]; 3. 71-Brady Baker[6]; 4. 95-Matt Covington[10]; 5. 2S-Colby Stubblefield[5]; 6. 1-Brenham Crouch[9]; 7. 36-Jason Martin[20]; 8. 52-Blake Hahn[4]; 9. 10-Landon Britt[16]; 10. 31-Casey Wills[11]; 11. 71T-Channin Tankersley[14]; 12. B2-Carson Bolden[2]; 13. 16G-Austyn Gossel[22]; 14. 2J-Zach Blurton[19]; 15. 938-Bradley Fezard; 16. 15D-Andrew Deal[7]; 17. 45X-Kyler Johnson[21]; 18. 88-Terry Easum[17]; 19. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[1]; 20. 2-Brekton Crouch[15]; 21. 24-Tyler Harris[8]; 22. 8-Aydan Saunders[12]; 23. 12W-Dale Wester[13]